As the Patch PR person, it's my job to tout our successes and use as many synonyms for the word "amazing" as I can when talking about an achievement or new project. I know - sometimes I even want to smack myself. In part, I'm like a professional cheerleader, but without the cute outfit and spray tan. Good news, though: Our new blog isn't designed to be a Patch infomercial. This is a win for you, the reader, because it means you won't have to tolerate big cups of Patch-green KoolAid being served up here. But today, there's definitely news worth sharing.

We just launched our 500th Patch site. Here's some perspective: in January of this year, we had 30. What if you had 30, I don't know, puppies at the beginning of the year and you now had 500? With 30, you'd be a more than a little wacky, sure, but you'd also have a horrifying reality show on basic cable. With 500, well, people would wonder how it happened, right before they called the authorities.

Early in 2010, before I had this job, I'd read about Patch's goal to launch over 500 sites by the end of the year. Yeeeeah, good luck with that, I thought. Maybe I can check out the 500th site on my laptop while riding my unicorn into Narnia. I mean, it would take a staggering amount of work, dedication, support, and spirit to grow at that rate. And now Patch has done it. We've launched 500 sites across the country, all managed by passionate professional journalists in each town. Even for someone as jaded as I, it's an honor to have people seeking us out every day to see what's going on around them. (I know that sounds corny, but I did restrain myself from typing Patchionate instead of passionate. Uh, until now, that is.)

A reporter told me a few weeks ago that when I talked about what it's like to work here and what it feels like to be a part of something bigger, alongside some of the sharpest minds in the biz, I sounded like I'd joined a cult. And I'm okay with that.

I know there are a lot of eyes on us as we continue to grow, and we're excited about that. We want to talk about what we're doing and why...we want to answer questions and take in feedback (even when it boils down to "Here's why Patch sucks" - which is very rare, but which gets our attention even faster than "Here's why Patch rocks"). I hope this blog will give us the chance to address some of the buzz, both good and bad.

So we've met that "over 500 sites" goal with a few weeks to spare, and we aren't stopping. Because as snarky and "Patchy" (ugh, smacking myself now, for example) as we may be on this blog, we take what we do really, really seriously. Thanks for coming along for the ride, and for indulging me a bit of cheerleading. I may not have the legs for it, but I'm very proud to be holding the megaphone.

Janine Iamunno